This book tells the story of the impact of George Frederic Watts OM RA (1817-1904) and his wife Mary Seton Watts (nee Fraser-Tytler, 1849-1938) on Compton, a small village in Surrey. Initially, the village acted as an autumnal and winter retreat for the artist and the designer, but became the permanent base for their work and the home of the Watts Gallery, the Compton Pottery with its studios and workshops, and the extraordinary Cemetery Chapel. A nationally significant site, it includes a gallery that holds an internationally important collection, and Arts and Crafts chapel by Mary Watts, a Great Studio house named 'Linnerslease' designed by Sir Ernest George, and the Compton Pottery buildings. More than a guide book, it presents a complete history and guide that will appeal to readers who wish to know the story of a unique artists' village. The book is richly illustrated with new photography, historic photographs and contextual material which give a sense of the significance of art and artists in the late nineteenth-century, and reveal a continuous and living philosophy at the heart of a Surrey village.

Author Biography

Mark Bills is curator of Watts Gallery. Formerly he was senior curator of paintings, prints and drawings at the Museum of London and visual arts officer at the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum. He has published widely on eighteenth-century and particularly nineteenth-century art, including William Powell Frith and G.F. Watts, Victorian Visionary, and numerous articles for magazines including Burlington Magazine and Apollo. He has curated national and international exhibitions including A Victorian Salon, at the Dahesh Museum, New York and Satirizing London, at the Museum of London with the accompanying book The Art of Satire: London in Caricature, also published by PWP. Contributors: Hilary Underwood, Veronica Franklin Gould, Desna Greenhow, Perdita Hunt and Catherine Hilary.